Quadrafire just not acting right

[Wrangler1011]

I have been using quadrafire castille for nearly 16 years now. Love these stoves. I have a freestanding castille in another house. I’m my house im living in now I am using a insert. I’m having two issues and I feel the two issue might come from one problem. First issue is it seems when the stove is full of pellets that the stove is having trouble lighting. If I hit the feed button a couple times it will get enough pellets to light. Tonight I see that there is less than half pellets in hopper and it is lol gating every time when the thermostat calls for it. So that’s the 1sr problem. 2nd problem is once the fire is lit a good amount of fuel is blowing out of the bowl as large embers. So the fire stays very small in the cup and I feel it is probably wasting a good amount of fuel. If anyone has any advise I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[maraakate]

Did you clean your stove before the first fire of the season? How well did you clean it? What steps did you take to clean it?

Have you tested the door glass gasket with the "dollar bill trick"? i.e. putting a dollar bill in the door against the gasket, closing the door and pulling on the dollar bill to see if it slides out easily? If it does, the gasket needs replaced.

 

[Former Farmer]

Have you checked your flame height after it has been running for a while per the owners manual? It sound like the gate for the feed auger may have to be opened up a little bit or you have something partially blocking it or in your feed auger. When was the last time you completely emptied your hopper and feed auger?